Many restaurants have you open the menu as soon as you sit down.
At ShinBay, there’s nothing to open.
That is the whole idea.
Tucked into Old Town Scottsdale, ShinBay is an intimate omakase room where guests give Master Chef Ken Tanaka control of the evening. The menu depends on that day's ingredients, with much of the prized seafood flown from Japan to Arizona within roughly 24 hours.
And after years of quietly operating one of Scottsdale’s most serious Japanese restaurants, ShinBay now has another distinction:
It was selected for the inaugural 2026 MICHELIN Guide Southwest.
Not a Michelin Star, and we want to be precise. ShinBay is MICHELIN Selected, meaning inspectors included it among the restaurants they recommend for culinary quality. MICHELIN Guide
So what exactly happens when you walk through the door?
🍣 What Is Omakase?
The Japanese word omakase roughly translates to:
“I’ll leave it up to you.”
In other words, you trust the chef.
You don't scroll through a sushi menu deciding between spicy tuna and yellowtail.
Chef Tanaka builds the evening around what is freshest and what he believes should be eaten that night.
ShinBay operator HL Concepts describes the restaurant as offering Arizona’s only true omakase experience, with no traditional menu and no substitutions. AZFamily recently used the same description after interviewing company CEO Andrew Nam. https://www.azfamily.com
One distinction we want to make, though:
ShinBay claims “Arizona’s only true omakase.”
Other Arizona restaurants offer omakase or chef-driven tasting experiences; they independently claim nobody else in the state qualifies. What clearly sets ShinBay apart is how fully it commits to the format.
You sit down.
Chef decides.
Dinner begins.
Chef Ken Tanaka
👨🍳 Meet Chef Ken Tanaka
Chef Ken Tanaka now leads ShinBay, bringing more than 30 years of Japanese culinary experience to the counter.
His background includes executive chef roles in kaiseki dining in Japan, as well as Restaurant Goku and Atari Omakase Sushi, before coming to ShinBay. Shinbay
That kaiseki background matters.
Omakase may be associated most closely with sushi in the United States, but ShinBay’s experience is broader than a parade of nigiri.
MICHELIN describes the meal as a progression through sashimi, composed dishes, and nigiri prepared to order, with different techniques, sauces, and aromatic elements throughout the evening. MICHELIN Guide
So don't think:
Expensive sushi dinner.
Think:
✈️ Fish From Japan to Scottsdale in About 24 Hours
There is an obvious question anytime we talk about exceptional sushi in Arizona:
We live in the desert. Where is this fish coming from?
In ShinBay's case, much of it comes from far away.
Andrew Nam told AZFamily that the restaurant flies seafood from Japan in within roughly 24 hours, giving Chef Tanaka access to products other Arizona restaurants can't consistently source.
MICHELIN also specifically highlights ShinBay's Japanese sourcing and says the night's menu is dictated by market arrivals. MICHELIN Guide
Depending on the season and what arrives, that can mean ingredients Scottsdale diners rarely encounter.
Recent examples cited by Experience Scottsdale include:
Horsehair crab in chawanmushi
A5 Japanese wagyu shabu shabu
Matsutake mushrooms grilled over binchotan charcoal
and nodoguro, or blackthroat seaperch, served as nigiri with caviar.
These are examples, not a standing menu.
Your dinner may be completely different.
That's omakase.
⏱️ Timing Matters Here
This may be one of ShinBay's most interesting things.
Dinner isn't simply prepared and put in front of you whenever you get around to eating it.
Timing is part of the dish.
Nam told AZFamily that when Tanaka prepares nigiri, the restaurant may tell diners to eat it immediately because he considers the fish's temperature, the rice's temperature, the warmth of his hands, and how long that particular bite has been sitting. https://www.azfamily.com
Even the dining room is reportedly kept cooler than a typical restaurant to help protect the seafood.
That shows how seriously ShinBay takes the details.
You are not supposed to leave the nigiri sitting there while finishing a story.
When Chef says eat it, eat it.
🪑 The Room
This is almost the complete opposite of Scottsdale's current wave of giant, high-energy restaurants.
No DJ.
No 300-seat dining room.
No giant LED wall.
MICHELIN describes ShinBay as an intimate counter with only 10 seats, while ShinBay itself says the room can accommodate private dinners of up to 13 guests. Axios likewise reports seatings for up to 13. MICHELIN Guide
Either way, this is tiny.
And intentionally so.
There are only two seatings each evening:
5:45 p.m.
and
8 p.m.
Dinner lasts approximately two hours. Shinbay
That intimacy is part of what makes omakase work.
You are watching the chef.
The chef is watching you.
The staff explains what they're serving.
Dinner unfolds almost like a performance, with the food as the script.
🍶 What About Drinks?
ShinBay maintains a notable sake program - something MICHELIN specifically calls out in its listing. MICHELIN Guide
That makes sake the obvious pairing if you want to lean completely into the experience.
Previous ShinBay wine and beverage programs have also included Japanese beer and premium sake, but because selections change, we can’t publish a specific bottle or price unless it appears on the current list on the day we publish.
With a meal this ingredient-driven, the beverage program should support the food rather than compete with it.
💰 Let's Talk About the Price
This is not an inexpensive dinner.
ShinBay's current omakase is $285 per person.
That does not include beverages or tax. Shinbay
For two people, you are starting at:
$570 before drinks, tax, and gratuity.
So this is clearly special-occasion territory.
Anniversary.
Birthday.
Food-obsessed visitor coming to Scottsdale.
Or simply someone who believes dinner can be the evening's entertainment.
But ’s also why comparing ShinBay to a typical sushi restaurant doesn’t make much sense.
You are buying a roughly two-hour chef-led tasting experience with premium ingredients and an extremely limited number of seats.
Whether that is worth $285 is ultimately personal.
But it's clear what ShinBay is trying to be.
⚠️ One Important Thing Before You Reserve
ShinBay is unusually clear about dietary restrictions.
Because the experience centers heavily on seafood, shellfish, and traditional Japanese ingredients that contain soy, the restaurant says it cannot accommodate shellfish allergies, gluten-free diets, vegetarian diets, or vegan diets. Shinbay
That is important enough that we would not bury it in the fine print.
This is ’t the kind of restaurant where you arrive and start negotiating substitutions.
Remember the premise:
Trust the chef.
🌟 And Now There Is MICHELIN
This is probably the biggest recent development at ShinBay.
When MICHELIN released its first-ever Southwest U.S. restaurant selection in 2026, ShinBay made the list as a MICHELIN Selected restaurant. Michelin
Only five Scottsdale restaurants received recognition in that first guide:
FnB received a Bib Gourmand.
And ShinBay, Hush Public House, INDIBAR and Reserve were MICHELIN Selected.
MICHELIN inspectors specifically praised ShinBay's ingredient quality, intimate setting, and staff who help diners understand unfamiliar ingredients and Japanese traditions. MICHELIN Guide
That is a significant endorsement for a restaurant operating with only a handful of seats in Old Town.
🍴 FORKING SCOTTSDALE'S TAKE
ShinBay may be one of the clearest examples of how much Scottsdale dining has changed.
For years, when people talked about Scottsdale restaurants, the conversation tended to revolve around steakhouses, resort dining, Southwestern food, and big destination restaurants.
Now a tiny Japanese counter in Old Town asks diners to spend $285 per person, give up control of what they're ordering, and trust one chef to guide them through an entire evening.
And people are doing it.
MICHELIN noticed it too.
What intrigues us most about ShinBay isn't simply that they're flying in expensive fish from Japan.
Lots of restaurants can buy expensive ingredients.
It's the discipline behind the experience.
No giant menu trying to please everyone.
No substitutions.
No distractions.
Two seatings.
A handful of diners.
Chef Tanaka decides what is best that day, prepares it, and tells you when to eat it.
That's a very different kind of luxury than Scottsdale usually sells.
What would we be most excited to experience?
The nigiri, obviously.
But honestly, we'd be just as interested in the courses we couldn't predict.
Horsehair crab.
Nodoguro.
Matsutake.
Whatever arrived from Japan that morning that we had never tried before.
Because if you already know exactly what you're going to order before walking into ShinBay...
You're kind of missing the point.
The whole idea is to let go.
Sit down.
And trust the chef.
📍 SHINBAY
3720 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 201
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
📞 480-361-1021
Current Hours
Monday-Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday-Sunday: Two seatings nightly
5:45 p.m.
8 p.m.
Omakase
$285 per person
Beverages and tax not included
Allow approximately two hours
Dress code: casual and comfortable. Shinbay
Reservations are required due to the extremely limited seating.
